Try to ask all questions and make all requests through opening Bugzilla bugs. Bugzilla is the right place to send the first message about your issue. If some technical problem prevents you from using Bugzilla (or the portal) email admins@hcoop.net. Never e-mail individual volunteers. You don't know when someone is on vacation, has switched away from being responsible for the thing you're asking about, etc.

1. Policy Questions

If you have a question about policy and nothing technical is going wrong, then you should be using Bugzilla. There is a component "Official Board questions" that is appropriate for soliciting official position statements. If you don't want your question appearing in our bug database, you can e-mail board@hcoop.net instead.

2. Paying Dues

If you have a question about paying your dues, open a bug in the "Financial" Bugzilla component. Sensitive questions can be e-mailed to payment@hcoop.net instead, but Bugzilla is more convenient for our volunteers, so try to use it if you can.

3. Questions About Using Your Account

If you don't know how to do something with your HCoop account, but you suspect that all you need is more information rather than admin intervention, then you will probably get a faster response by posting to the hcoop-help mailing list. You can subscribe to that list using your preferences page on the portal.

4. Account Problems

4.1. Lost Password

If you have lost your HCoop password, you will need to prove that you are you by making a small payment with the PayPal account you opened your account with, or have recently used to fund your HCoop account.

Visit the random password generator and save the ID and password it gives you. Then make any sized PayPal payment, writing "lost password: N" in the comment field, where N is the ID that you saved. Do not e-mail the password! The net payment will be applied to your balance and not refunded (we lose the $0.30 fixed fee when refunding payment).

If you are unable to use PayPal and need a password reset, email admins@hcoop.net for further assistance.

4.2. Closing Your Account

If you want to close your account, open a bug in the "Financial" category. Include instructions on what we should do with the remainder of your balance and deposit. Giving a PayPal address is the easiest way to have your remaining balance returned. You can also opt to donate your balance to the co-op.

5. Anything Else

Any question is welcome on either Bugzilla or hcoop-help, and any request is welcome on Bugzilla. Don't worry about asking a "stupid" or inappropriate question. Admins are watching both of these channels and will redirect you in case you really are sending a message to the wrong place.

Our IrcChannel is a secondary source of support. Admins consider themselves under no obligation to reply to support requests on IRC, since it is very hard to track a set of open support issues when communication happens over so unstructured a medium as IRC. Nonetheless, some admins may be in the mood to help you at some times, and we have a good number of helpful channel regulars who aren't admins.

6. Reporting DMCA Violations or Other Abuse of Services

Non-members may e-mail abuse@hcoop.net to report DMCA violations and other illegal uses of our services.